Tickets flew. La Bombonera will be a party. There will be no uncertainty because this time the road to the World Cup was roses. It will be a night to celebrate and to caress the National Team and Lionel Messi in the last official match in Argentina before Qatar 2022.
Absences don’t matter. He plays a team that excites and supports his phenomenon, his megacrack, like never before. He plays Argentina, against the modest Venezuela, at dawn on a Spanish Saturday, starting at 00:30 and in the unique Boca stadium.
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In another circumstance, with a complicated scenario in the table, the light blue and white preview would have been dramatic in the face of so many problems. It is that, of the usual headlines, this time only Messi, Molina, Otamendi, De Paul and Paredes will play. Due to different situations, due to FIFA sanctions, injuries and Covid-19, more than half of the main formation will watch from the outside. One of the unknowns is Angel Di María, who comes out of a muscle injury suffered at PSG and will be tested.
After all, it will be a test that will serve Lionel Scaloni to measure several soccer players who are usually replacements, thinking about eventual replacement frames but also in the definitive formation of the World Cup list.
Scaloni against Pekerman, his forger in the albiceleste
It will also be a night of hugs and greetings on the field of play. Is that the coach of Venezuela is José Pekerman, Albiceleste coach of Lionel Scaloni, coach of Lionel Messi in Germany 2006… It will be José’s third game in a Vinotinto that begins a path of reconstruction. He has already directed two matches: 4-1 he beat Bolivia and 1-4 he fell to Uruguay. Now he will seek to ruin the celebration for Argentina and Messi.
Likely lineups
Argentina-Venezuela (8:30 p.m. local time, 00:30 a.m. in Spain)
The Bombonera of Buenos Aires
Argentina: Franco Armani; Nahuel Molina, Germán Pezzella, Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás Tagliafico; Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes, Alexis Mac Allister or Exequiel Palacios; Lionel Messi, Joaquin Correa and Nicolas Gonzalez
Coach: Lionel Scaloni
Venezuela: Wilker Farinez; Ronald Hernández, Nahuel Ferraresi, Jhon Chancellor, Miguel Navarro; Jose Martinez, Yangel Herrera; Darwin Machís, Rómulo Otero, Jefferson Savarino; Solomon Rondon
Coach: Jose Pekerman
Referee: Kevin Ortega (Peru).
